Improved sentiment in the public equities, M&A and credit markets have provided an opportunity for private equity firms to make exits and return capital to investors. This has been reflected in Financial News’ second annual Rising Stars in Private Equity, which celebrates some of the most promising men and women in the private equity industry.

Many on the 2014 list led or worked on high-profile sales and IPOs, which have made bumper returns for their firms, or worked on refinancings of portfolio companies. The list also represents dealmakers, particularly those at firms that have benefited from recent fundraisings. Fundraising still remains crucial, and we have included individuals from across the spectrum who are helping raise capital at a time when regulation has squeezed some of the traditional commitments.

These include investor relations executives, placement agents and ambitious young founders of firms. The rising stars are also high-achievers in their spare time and include a record label owner, a semi-professional poker player and a recognised collector of contemporary art.

Tara Alhadeff

Principal, Permira

Age 32

Alhadeff was promoted to principal at the European private equity house in January 2014, having worked on several high-profile buyouts. These include the buyout of footwear brand Dr Martens, which Permira bought for £300 million in October 2013; the 2010 acquisition of frozen food business Findus Italy by Permira-backed Iglo Group; and the three-way merger of Permira-owned eDreams with Go Voyages and Opodo in 2011. The combined company eDreams Odigeo floated in April 2014 valued at roughly €1 billion. Alhadeff, who is currently on maternity leave, joined Permira in 2008 after three years at Morgan Stanley.

Emma Anderson

Director and chief financial officer, Capital Dynamics

Age 35

Anderson is a key figure behind the scenes at Capital Dynamics, the Swiss private equity investor, which has about $19 billion of assets under management. Promoted in 2013 to chief financial officer, she is responsible for the smooth running of more than 70 corporate entities across 20 tax jurisdictions. She manages a team of four employees at the firm and in 2013 spent four months in Beijing overseeing the company’s integration with its new Chinese joint venture – a deal that paves the way for the firm to raise more money from Asian institutional investors. A keen baker, she enjoys hill walking around Switzerland in her spare time.

Bertie Aykroyd

Investment director, Lloyds Development Capital

Age 30

Coming from a “family of entrepreneurs”, the proud, bagpipe-playing Scot wanted to work in private equity “as soon as he was aware” of the industry. Starting out in a leveraged finance role at Barclays until it cut back on private equity in 2009, Aykroyd then worked on secondment for Lloyds Development Capital. Within a year he was doing deals and was offered a job at LDC. At the age of 30, Aykroyd has already played a role in many prominent mid-market deals, including LDC’s buyout of restaurant group D&D London, the owner of Coq d’Argent in the City of London, in April 2013. His other investments include Mountain Warehouse, The ComplEat Food Group, Ocean Outdoor and Fever-Tree.

Catherine Balthasar

Senior investment manager, Aberdeen SVG

Age 36

Born in the French region of Alsace, Balthasar moved to Germany to work for Deka Investment, handling its public markets investments. Keen to work with a longer-term investment profile, Balthasar in 2005 joined private equity investor SVG Advisers, which was in 2013 part-acquired by Aberdeen Asset Management. Balthasar was an integral part in building SVG’s Singapore office in 2009 and was promoted one year later to senior investment manager. More recently, she helped major European buyout firms in their recent fundraising efforts, backing Cinven in February 2013 and Permira in April 2013. Balthasar, who has a master’s in management from the HEC Business School in Paris, is helping to set up a photography exhibition.

Alexander Bruells

Principal, KKR

Age 32

A “dream internship” with Nike’s then-head of football in Germany Daniel Eppler, following an ambition to work in the sports industry, took an unexpected twist when Eppler advised Bruells to first pursue a career in consultancy and finance. By 2005, Bruells had joined Goldman Sachs, and in 2008 he moved to the bank’s proprietary trading spin-off. Working on private equity and mezzanine investments inspired a move to buyout firm KKR in 2009, and since 2011 he has run its investment strategy in asset-heavy services. Bruells played a key role acquiring 49.9% of Spanish onshore helicopter service provider Grupo Inaer for $300 million in 2010, before helping develop it into a government outsourcing business, called Avincis. In March 2014, Bruells helped manage the $3.2 billion sale of Avincis to British engineering group Babcock International. That deal generated a 2.5 times return for KKR.

Mark Calnan

Global head of private equity, Towers Watson

Age 31

Since taking over the leadership of Towers Watson’s 22-strong private equity division in 2009, Calnan has overseen a significant increase in business. The investment consultancy, which advises pension funds on private equity allocations, deployed about $1.5 billion on behalf of clients into the asset class in 2013, up from five years before, when about $200 million was spent. Calnan, who joined the firm in 2004, has also been given more responsibility for the group’s wider private markets coverage and has become an outspoken advocate on industry issues such as excessive fees. A Millwall FC season ticket holder since the age of seven, he has an MA in Economics and a BA in Business Economics from Leeds University.

Gabriele Cipparrone

Partner, technology and telecommunications, Apax Partners

Age 39

Cipparrone joined Apax in 2003, after completing an MBA at Harvard Business School and a two-year stint at consultancy McKinsey & Company. Within six years, he was partner at Apax, one of Europe’s largest private equity houses, and has since taken over responsibility for the telecoms sector. He led Apax’s €1.6 billion acquisition of Orange Switzerland from France Telecom in 2012, and by 2013 had helped expand the business, returned 75% of capital invested and increased its ebitda by 15%. Cipparrone hopes to become a wine producer in the Puglia region when he retires. He is currently reading How will you measure your life? by Clayton Christensen, James Allworth and Karen Dillon.

Tania Daguere Lindbäck

Managing director, Blackstone

Age 37

Daguere Lindbäck wanted to be a professional dancer before opting for a career in finance. She has built a reputation as a respected key dealmaker at Blackstone. Specialising in the healthcare and business services sector, Daguere Lindbäck has worked on some of Blackstone’s highest-profile acquisitions, including the buyouts of holiday company Center Parcs and Southern Cross Healthcare. In 2013, she took time out to have a baby. Daguere Lindbäck has been kept busy as a board director of Center Parcs and sourcing bolt-on acquisitions for healthcare staffing company ICS. She joined Blackstone in 2004 after working in mergers and acquisitions at Goldman Sachs in London and Paris.

Josselin de Roquemaurel

Director, KKR

Age 37

De Roquemaurel says that dealmaking can sometimes be a solitary experience and so places great importance on mentoring junior colleagues. He joined KKR in 2005 from JP Morgan corporate finance and now runs a team of three people. He focuses on sourcing investments in the energy sector but in the last 12 months has been given further responsibility for the firm’s French investments. Deals in which De Roquemaurel took part include an investment in October 2013 in commodities platform FlowStream Commodities and the flotation of French flooring maker Tarkett in November 2013, which made a two-times return for the firm. He plans to complete a PhD in history when he retires.

Carolina Espinal

Principal, HarbourVest Partners

Age 36

Espinal has always pursued her long-held ambition to work in investment – as a child she wanted to be a stockbroker after playing the Nintendo video game Wall Street Kid. Ten years ago, having become the first Honduran to complete a masters in finance at London Business School, she joined HarbourVest Partners in London. In her decade at the fund of funds manager, she has worked on making primary commitments to private equity funds across Europe and Latin America. Espinal’s promotion to a principal in 2011 came as HarbourVest ramped up its Latin America business in Colombia. She also sits on the advisory boards of funds managed by buyout firms. Espinal’s career began as a financial analyst at Merrill Lynch in Houston, and in retirement she hopes to mentor women in finance.

John Flynn

Principal, Silver Lake

Age 30

Since joining technology buyout specialist Silver Lake in 2008, Flynn has built a reputation for working on some of the firm’s biggest and most eye-catching European investments. These included a €1 billion buyout of travel payment business Global Blue from Equistone Partners Europe alongside private equity manager Partners Group in 2012, and the $8.5 billion sale of video-calling business Skype to Microsoft in 2011, which followed Silver Lake’s acquisition of Skype 18 months earlier. In 2013, it raised a $10.3 billion fund – far exceeding its $7.5 billion target. Flynn, who previously worked at investment banking advisory firm Evercore Partners, is known as a “cerebral” and “understated” dealmaker, according to advisers.

Philip Fretwell

Managing director, Ares Management

Age 33

Fretwell, a former Barclays leveraged finance banker, has helped build Ares Management’s brand in Europe as it sought to establish a direct lending presence in the region. Having hired a team of seasoned debt specialists in 2007, the $74 billion Los Angeles-based alternatives investor has since become a go-to shop in Europe for debt to finance mid-market buyout deals, according to advisers, with about $5.5 billion of assets under management in Europe. In 2013, Fretwell was rewarded with the promotion to managing director, and was involved in the recapitalisation of HgCapital-backed Manx Telecom as well as Ares’ provision of debt facilities to back Equistone Partners Europe’s acquisition and merger of MDNX Group and Easynet.

Kim Gulstad

Principal, NC Advisory

Age 38

Promoted in September 2013 to head Nordic Capital’s Norwegian advisory office, Gulstad has been overseeing the sourcing of new investment opportunities. Recent deals include managing the 2013 acquisition of Danish logistics business Unifeeder from Montagu Private Equity, Nordic Capital’s first investment from its €3.5 billion Fund VIII, and a follow-on acquisition. Gulstad, who joined the firm in 2004 after three years at Goldman Sachs, cites his integral role in Danish emergency service provider Falck’s 2004 delisting and subsequent 2011 sale as his greatest career achievement. Falck’s revenues doubled from DKr 4.2 billion ($7.7 billion) in 2004 to DKr 8.4 billion in 2010. Gulstad is a keen pheasant and duck hunter.

Christian Hamilton

Investment director, Inflexion Private Equity

Age 35

Hamilton learnt to sail at a young age before becoming captain of the British Universities and Oxford University sailing teams, reaching a career high of 26th place in the world match race rankings. In finance, he has navigated his financial career to become a prominent dealmaker in the private equity mid-market, where he works at a firm ranked by Preqin as Europe’s second most consistent performing buyout fund manager in 2013. Hamilton joined Inflexion in 2003 and has been sourcing and leading deals ever since, including its acquisition of Aspen Pumps in 2007. He has been involved in the majority of Inflexion’s deals, including another involving Aspen when it acquired CP Electronics in January 2014. He also co-led Inflexion’s acquisition of Cablecom in October 2013. Hamilton is heavily involved in Partnership Capital, which is Inflexion’s minority investment business dedicated to partnering entrepreneurs.

Warren Hibbert

Founder, Asante Capital Group

Age 38

Serial entrepreneur Hibbert says the launch of his securities lending firm Penryth Securities in 2000, with the help of private equity backing, sparked his interest in the industry. After selling Penryth, he joined fledgling private equity advisory firm MVision Private Equity Advisers as a partner. Seven years later, Hibbert launched the spin-off global advisory and private placement group Asante Capital with MVision’s chief financial officer and two partners. He has since been instrumental in developing the business. The skier, golfer and triathlete cites UK energy firm Blue Water Energy’s final close of its $862 million debut fund and Africa-based Capitalworks Private Equity Fund II’s $267 million fundraising among his important deals in 2013.

Rohin Jain

Investment advisory professional, Triton Advisers

Age 33

Jain is gaining a reputation as a successful dealmaker for Triton, the northern European mid-market specialist, which is investing its €3.3 billion fund raised in May 2013. One adviser describes Jain as “one of the few consistent deal-doers”. Jain was instrumental in Triton’s €730 million buyout of the auxiliary components business of Alstom’s Thermal Power division in April 2014. He also worked on a deal alongside peer Rhône Capital to acquire Carbon Black, an industrial carbon unit, from German chemicals company Evonik for $1.3 billion in 2011. Jain, who has an MBA and a BSc in Economics from the Wharton School, has worked at Mistral Equity Partners, UBS, Banc of America and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.

Malte Janzarik

Principal, TPG Capital

Age 33

German national Janzarik, who heads the US-based private equity giant’s investments in the digital and new media space in Europe, was promoted to principal in January 2014. He joined TPG in 2005 having started out in investment banking at UBS in London, and worked closely on TPG’s exit from bathroom fittings maker Grohe Group – which it had jointly bought with Credit Suisse in 2004 for $1.5 billion – selling it in September 2013 for €3.1 billion. In 2014, he also helped source and lead TPG’s £200 million investment in UK online and mail order bathroom retailer Victoria Plumb. Janzarik holds a master’s degree in economics from Cambridge University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Jean-Romain Lhomme

Principal and co-head, Colony Capital Europe

Age 38

Lhomme joined Colony Capital as an analyst in 2000 and has since become one of the California-based real estate investor’s most senior figures. In 2013, he became co-head of the Europe team – which manages roughly €6 billion – following chief executive Sébastien Bazin’s departure to hotel group Accor. Lhomme has been instrumental in driving the operations of companies in which Colony invests, including Swiss hospital chain Hôpital de la Tour. He also led the acquisition of a €213 million Spanish non-performing loan portfolio from Lloyds Banking Group in November 2013. The French Alps native was previously an analyst for Paribas, as part of a team privatising utilities in Latin America.

Ben Loomes

Managing partner of infrastructure, 3i Group

Age 37

Loomes joined 3i Group in 2012 to help steer the transformation of the UK private equity house following a 2012 strategic review. He is responsible for developing and executing the strategic plan and sits on the risk and conflicts committees. In February 2014, he stepped up to jointly lead 3i’s infrastructure business with Phil White following the departure of Cressida Hogg, former managing partner. The infrastructure business manages £2.3 billion of assets. A keen photographer, Loomes previously worked in mergers and acquisitions, financing advisory and restructuring at firms including Goldman Sachs, Greenhill and Morgan Stanley.

Neil Mahapatra

Chief executive and co-founder, Kingsley Capital Partners

Age 34

Mahapatra cut his teeth in the private equity industry investing for the Rothschild family and later RIT Capital Partners after completing his MBA at Harvard Business School as a Fulbright scholar. At RIT, he sourced and led the firm’s investment in Dropbox, the file hosting service. In 2012, Mahapatra set up Kingsley Capital Partners with two partners, raising seed capital in less than two months. The firm, which has a deal-by-deal investment model, completed a £26 million investment in call centre group Infinity SDC within 18 months of launching. Mahapatra was selected in 2010 by the Conservative party to contest Sedgefield, Tony Blair’s former constituency. He plans to run for election again in 2020.

Giovanni Miele

Co-founder, partner, Metric Capital Partners

Age 35

A house music DJ, jazz aficionado and record label owner, Miele is not your typical leveraged finance specialist. He describes the launch of the special situations funding platform Metric Capital Partners in 2011, together with John Sinik, a former partner at TowerBrook Capital Partners, as “an emotional journey”. The decision meant resigning from Barclays Capital less than a year after he joined from UBS to run leveraged finance and restructuring advisory activities in Europe and the Middle East, and while his wife was pregnant. He has since been instrumental in developing Metric into a 12-strong bespoke credit and equity investor in the European small to mid-cap market. He has led six of the firm’s 12 investments in the region since April 2012. In 2013, he managed the final close of Metric’s first fund, which attracted €226 million from pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and other institutions.

Nik Morandi

Partner, head of research and portfolio strategy, Pantheon Ventures

Age 37

Morandi acquired a taste for private equity in UBS’s European M&A team, where he focused on take-privates for buyside and sellside clients from 2005. Spotting growth potential in the secondaries investment market, which involves trading of investor commitments, he joined the private equity fund of funds manager Pantheon Ventures in 2007. By January 2014, he was a partner, secondaries investment committee member and head of the research and portfolio strategy at Pantheon, with responsibility for sourcing, pricing and approval of secondaries deals within the firm’s $6 billion secondaries investment programme. He also manages the group’s corporate data team. In 2013, Morandi was instrumental in structuring the first private equity fund of funds platform to target the US defined contributions pension market. The London School of Economics and Oxford University graduate’s first job in 2000 was in SG Hambros’ European M&A team.

Joern Nikolay

Principal, General Atlantic

Age 35

Nikolay, who wanted to be a builder as a child, was appointed to launch and run General Atlantic’s Munich office at the end of 2012 and has spent the past 12 months expanding the growth investor’s activities in Germany. He is responsible for a team of seven in Munich. He has been heavily involved in developing a €1.25 billion joint venture with German media giant Axel Springer, called Axel Springer Digital Classifieds. Nikolay joined General Atlantic’s London office in 2006 after working at Morgan Stanley in Frankfurt. In his spare time, he mentors students for a foundation that supports young people with immigrant backgrounds.

Giuseppe Prestia

Partner, Charterhouse Capital Partners

Age 39

Prestia’s love of Ferraris drove him to study mechanical engineering but it was at his first employer Procter & Gamble that he gained a taste for the world of private equity, when he helped assess technology investments for P&G’s internal venture capital team. In 2004, with an offer to join Candover in hand, Prestia was headhunted for Charterhouse and within 24 hours Gordon Bonnyman, the then-managing partner of the firm, made him a job offer. By 2009, Prestia was a partner, leading investments in southern Europe and healthcare. He is one of the most active partners at Charterhouse and has completed two deals for its latest €4 billion fund, including an Italian primary deal involving cheesemaker Nuova Castelli in February 2014. Prestia, who in retirement plans to focus on his wine company, says the best piece of advice he received is that the difference between success and being considered crazy is the end result.

Supraj Rajagopalan

Partner, Cinven

Age 35

Rajagopalan trained as a doctor and spent a year working for the UK National Health Service before moving into finance. Continuing to put his medical knowledge to use, he joined Boston Consulting Group covering the financial services and healthcare sectors, before establishing himself as a part of European buyout firm Cinven’s healthcare team from 2004. In July 2011, Rajagopalan was made a partner and has since worked on many prominent healthcare buyouts, including Cinven’s sale of allergy-testing company Phadia in 2011 for €2.5 billion – a €1 billion capital gain for the firm. In February 2014, he was involved in Cinven’s first US deal.

Robert Ramsauer

Managing director, Blackstone

Age 34

Austrian-born Ramsauer has been busy preparing several businesses ready for exit, including Spanish food cans company Mivisa in 2011, which is expected to double Blackstone’s investment. Ramsauer, who was promoted to managing director in 2012 having joined the firm in 2003, names the corporate carve-out of Orangina-Schweppes in 2006 and acquisition of camera company Leica in 2011 among his best deals. The consumer, retail, packaging and aerospace industries expert cut his teeth in the financial sponsors group at Credit Suisse First Boston in London, but always hoped to be a professional tennis player. Despite not fulfilling his childhood ambition, he still enjoys hitting the courts and skiing.

Rodney Reid

Head of secondaries private equity advisory, Emea, UBS

Age 36

Reid joined UBS from Cerberus Capital Management in 2006 after bumping into friends at the Swiss bank who he knew from his Harvard Business School days. Both firms occupied 875 Third Avenue in New York, so he didn’t have far to travel. As part of the Swiss bank’s private funds group, he worked on the increasingly important secondaries market, and since 2010, Reid has completed the sale of over $9 billion private equity fund commitments. In late 2013, he became head of Europe and relocated to London, following the departure of a handful of New York and London-based staff to Evercore. A former baseball player, who had to give up the sport at college due to injury, Reid is now a recognised collector of contemporary art. Alec Soth and Pieter Hugo are among his favourite photographers.

Nick Rose

Director, Advent International

Age 33

Rose was kept busy in 2013 with the exit of one of Advent’s portfolio companies, UK home appliance insurer Domestic & General Group, which was sold to CVC Capital Partners for about £750 million. Rose, who focuses on investments in the business and financial services sector, was also involved in the refinancing of £396 million worth of debt at insurance company Towergate in 2013. He also sits on Towergate’s board. Rose’s career includes the high-profile acquisitions of Financial Dynamics, Equiniti, Xafinity and RBS WorldPay. He joined Advent in 2005 after cutting his teeth in the private equity practice of Bain & Company. He has an MA in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford University.

Robert Ruberton

Senior portfolio manager in European credit, Apollo Global Management

Age 39

When motor racing fanatic Ruberton moved to US private equity firm Apollo’s London office in 2007, he had $300 million of capital to buy debt in distressed companies. Seven years on, he heads a 17-strong team with $4 billion to invest across multiple credit investment vehicles. Harvard-graduate Ruberton, who says the best piece of advice he ever received was “don’t be afraid to hire people who are smarter than you”, cites the sale of the UK’s Burton’s Biscuits to the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan in 2013 as one of his most successful deals in Europe. He joined Apollo in the US in 2004, having worked at US mid-market private equity firm Arsenal Capital Partners and in investment banking at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette.

Peter Rutland

Senior managing director, CVC Capital Partners

Age 35

Rutland makes it on to the private equity rising stars list for a second consecutive year after helping CVC Capital Partners secure two of Europe’s largest deals in 2013. He led CVC’s €600 million buyout of online payments provider Skrill from Bahraini alternative investment firm Investcorp, which was announced in August 2013. He also co-led CVC’s acquisition of UK home appliance insurer Domestic & General Group from global buyout peer Advent International, where Rutland used to work before joining CVC’s financial institutions group in 2007. He previously worked in the investment banking division at Goldman Sachs. He has an MA from Cambridge University and an MBA from Insead.

Michael Scherb

Founder and general partner, Appian Capital Advisory

Age 32

Austrian national Scherb gained experience of the mining sector at JP Morgan Cazenove in London, where he worked for five years, before setting up his own private equity firm Appian in 2011 when he was just 29 years old. The firm has about $750 million-worth of firepower after closing its first fund in February 2014 – with $375 million of commitments and $375 million available from investors for co-investments. Appian has already struck two mining deals – one in Colombia and another in west Africa. Scherb, who has lived in six countries over the years, likes to continue his globetrotting in his spare time, as well as practice martial arts.

Alex Schoenfeldt

Head of alternatives and private equity, British Airways Pension Investment Management

Age 37

From the age of 10, Schoenfeldt wanted a career in finance after his mother encouraged him in 1987 to buy shares in the flotation of manufacturer, Rolls Royce. This led to a 12-year tenure as senior investment officer at charitable foundation Atlantic Philanthropies, before he joined British Airways Pension Investment Management in 2012 as portfolio manager for alternative assets. By October 2013, Schoenfeldt was promoted and his role expanded after the departure of head of private equity Gillian Brown. Today he oversees the investment strategy for alternatives and private equity for BA’s two main pension schemes, and has appointed several external fund managers to run private equity portfolios, which totalled £586.5 million at March 2013.

Ivano Sessa

Principal, Bain Capital

Age 36

Even as a child, Sessa wanted to be an investor – a passion that was fuelled by working with inspirational senior executives early in his career. Today he is one of Bain Capital’s key European dealmakers, having led three acquisitions in as many years: Bain’s buyouts of animal feed supplier Ewos in 2013; engineering and plumbing services provider Bravida in 2012; and chemicals distributor IMCD in 2011. In 2013, he also helped Bain exit from Italian business information provider Cerved. Part of the European industrials and southern Europe-focused teams, he joined Bain in 2004 from consultancy Bain & Company. Sessa, who helps recruit and mentor juniors, is a keen runner and Napoli Football Club supporter.

Edward Shuckburgh

Director, Montagu Private Equity

Age 38

Shuckburgh joined Montagu in 2006 after a five-year stint at McKinsey & Company and has since been described by a lawyer as having “all the skills to be a standout dealmaker for years to come”. In 2013, he led Montagu’s buyout of laboratory IT systems supplier CliniSys Group for more than £100 million. He was also involved in Montagu’s $243 million buyout of Cap, a vehicle valuation firm, in 2012. Shuckburgh began his career at the Financial Times Group as a business development manager, setting up a new business unit and working on products including MarketWatch, now owned by Dow Jones. Shuckburgh holds a maths degree from Oxford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Rob Squire

Senior managing director, CVC Capital Partners

Age 32

Squire joined CVC Capital Partners’ investor relations team in 2012 and has played a leading role in fundraising for the European private equity group’s sixth fund, which closed at the end of 2013 with commitments of €10.5 billion. The oversubscribed fund attracted pledges of more than €14 billion in the first six months of fundraising, outshining other successful European buyout rivals. Squire joined CVC from Coller Capital, where he helped raise the London-based private equity secondaries investor’s $5.5 billion sixth fund. He was previously a director at Park Hill Group, the fund advisory arm of Blackstone Group. Squire holds a BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a Morehead Scholar.

Philip Sternheimer

Director, Hellman & Friedman

Age 35

Sternheimer juggles his day job as a dealmaker at US buyout firm Hellman & Friedman with being a semi-professional poker player. Based in the UK since 2009, he was promoted to director in 2013 covering the retail sector, and overseeing recruitment in London for Hellman. Career highlights include the €2.3 billion acquisition of Swedish alarm maker Securitas Direct in 2011 and the $2.7 billion buyout of US manufacturer Goodman Global, which sold in 2012 for a 2.5 times multiple. Sternheimer, who was born in France, grew up in Germany and has American citizenship, joined Hellman in San Francisco in 2007 from BC Partners in Hamburg. He is also involved in the Impetus Private Equity Foundation’s annual fundraising poker tournament.

Matthew Tooth

Senior partner, BC Partners

Age 38

Tooth has kept his foot on the pedal since joining buyout firm BC Partners in September 2013 from Blackstone. By March 2014, he was in the driving seat on BC Partners’ £300 million acquisition – alongside co-investor Insight Venture Partners – of Dublin-based car rental technology platform CarTrawler. He will also become chairman of CarTrawler. Described by ex-colleagues as “forthright but charming”, Tooth worked on six high-profile deals at Blackstone, including the £102.5 million acquisition of Merlin Entertainments in 2005, which floated in 2013 for almost $1.7 billion. Having previously spent six years at Credit Suisse, Tooth was one of Blackstone’s first London hires in 2003 and had led his first deal by 2010.

Justin von Simson

Partner and head of Germany, HgCapital

Age 39

Von Simson has helped buyout firm HgCapital become a significant player in the German private equity sector. “He has the gravitas that when he shows up at a meeting at a target, it is a sign that HgCapital takes something very seriously,” said one adviser. “He is clearly one of the major actors in the German market.” After working at Goldman Sachs and Deloitte, von Simson joined HgCapital in 2002, became a director in 2007, a partner one year later and head of Germany in 2011. In December 2013, he oversaw the acquisition of German software provider P&I Personal & Informatik from buyout firm Carlyle Group for €438 million – HgCapital’s first deal from its £2 billion seventh fund.

Pete Wilson

Director, 3i Group

Age 32

Wilson, who joined 3i Group in 2006 from Accenture, was promoted to director in 2011 and is “extremely highly rated within 3i”, according to one private equity executive. Leading 3i’s activities in the UK business services sector, Wilson led the exit of Civica, a software provider, to Omers Private Equity in May 2013. The £390 million sale generated nearly £230 million for 3i and represented a 2.1 times return. In 2010, he worked on Inspicio’s £450 million sale of Inspectorate, a commodity testing and inspection division. He also helped on the refinancing of ESG, which formed the rest of the Inspicio business. Wilson holds a first in management science from Warwick University.

Tom Wrenn

Partner, ECI Partners

Age 36

Wrenn has been involved in some of the mid-market private equity firm’s most successful investments, leading its technology media and telecommunications unit since 2011. These included CarTrawler, the car rental platform in which ECI invested in 2011, and sold in March 2014 to BC Partners for a six-times return. Wrenn, who joined London-based ECI in 2006, having worked in the private equity group of Close Brothers Corporate Finance, also led the exit of laboratory IT systems supplier CliniSys Group, which was sold in July 2013 to European buyout firm Montagu Private Equity for more than £100 million. He is currently leading a TMT transaction.

Methodology

Over the past three months, Financial News has canvassed the market for opinion and has drawn up a longlist of more than 100 potential rising stars. All nominees had to be under 40 years of age on April 28, based in Europe, the Middle East or Africa and working in the private equity industry. Candidates were then assessed by FN’s editorial team on their achievements to date, given their age, firepower at their disposal, and their potential to reach a position of great influence. The longlist was then whittled down to the final 40 listed here. The list is not ranked.